I had a very limited childhood. My father made his living as a shoeshine man. There was a bank at Av. Pres. Vargas (Rio de Janeiro) and that‘s where he earned the sustenance of our family. We did not have a refrigerator and no television (even if in the decades of 1960 and 1970 it was not very common the presence of the two in a house). We slept around 20:00 hours without much to do. However, we had an electric shower! Yes, an old and noisy shower that always presented defects, but it never stopped working, because my father, as a Swiss watchmaker, had a tremendous patience to fix it. I remember one day you came home from work and stayed up to high hours about a pile of pieces to look for the defect. I never understood it after all, there were so many shortcomings. This obsession of my father, in relation to the electric shower, is one of the remarkable memories that I have of my childhood.

Well, not long ago, talking to my mother about our past, the explanation came.

– We really didn’t have anything. They were good times even with all those limitations.-

– Mama, I don’t remember you complaining about the life we had

– Well, he never missed the only comfort I asked when we got married.

– which?

– An electric shower. He always knew I hated taking a cold bath!